Photo: Contributed - BlackBerry

A late morning lift from tech heavyweight BlackBerry helped push the Toronto stock market into positive territory Monday.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 16.11 points to 12,851.72.

BlackBerry (TSX:BB) shares ran up $1.41 or 10.5 per cent to $14.84 amid news that the company's new Z10 smartphone will go on sale in the U.S. on March 22 through AT&T. The Z10 has already launched in Canada, the U.K., India and a few other markets to date.

But the Toronto market was held back as commodity prices and resource stocks retreated following the release of weaker than expected Chinese economic data over the weekend.

The Canadian dollar edged up 0.15 of a cent to 97.32 cents US.

U.S. markets turned mainly higher after the key Dow Jones industrial average ended last week at a record high, having recouped all the losses resulting from the 2008 financial crisis and the recession that followed.

The Dow Jones industrials gained 11.83 points to 14,408.9, the Nasdaq composite index was off 4.65 points to 3,239.72 and the S&P 500 index was 0.03 of a point ahead to 1,551.21.